Generation 1—Tʜᴇ FᴏƦɢᴏᴛᴛᴇɴ VᴀƦɪᴀBʟᴇ
by Sheronnale
Summary: "The last time we held hands was at my uncle's funeral, as my father cried." —Divergent, p. 41. What happened to Perrier after he transferred to Amity? Did he ever receive Andrew's letter? And was his death really an accident? (Companion/sequel to Generation 1—The Class of 2251)
1. Artificial Entrance: 1-8-2235

**Author's Note (Please read!): I don't know about you, but I always found Jeanine's death a bit…improbable. If she's really so smart, why in the world did she have such a flimsy security system in her secret laboratory? Why couldn't she remotely steal Abnegation's files over the data network? How come she didn't install a simple security system to catch escapees in the Erudite headquarters like the ones we already have, instead of letting Tris and Tobias run amok? Personally, I think there must've been somebody working against her, somebody smarter and more experienced than Peter or Caleb. **

**This is a companion story to my other work, _Generation 1—The Class of 2251_. If you don't have time to read the whole thing, please, _please_ at least look over Andrew, Natalie, and Jeanine's POVs so you understand what's going on. **

**Note: The "Age: _" labels at the start of each chapter indicate the age of the person narrating. Also, some details of this story will conflict with _Allegiant_ because I wrote its prequel, _The Class of 2251_, before the third book came out. For the sake of continuity, Andrew's last name will remain Carr while Natalie's surname is Prior, the conflict that lead to the formation of the factions was between the UN and ICL rather than the GP and GD, and there's no Bureau. In terms of the plot, these details won't matter too much; I simply want readers to know why I changed certain things. You can think of this as a slight AU if you like.**

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**Family Trees:**

Carr Family: Leon + Iris —» **Andrew**, Perrier

**Matthews **Family: Kyle + Nora —» **Jeanine**, Dave, Candice, Amy

**Prior** Family: Ottis + Ruth —» **Natalie**

Woods Family: Felipe + Mariana —» Javier, Rodrigo, Oscar, Luis, _Cassidy_

(**Bold** = Canon, _Italics_ = Adopted)

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**_January 8, 2235_**

**_Nora, Age 32_**

Silence.

The only sound in the laboratory is the steady _tap tap tap_ of Kyle's keyboard. We all hold our breaths, waiting.

I never thought I'd welcome my first child into the world like this, standing before an artificial womb in a cramped lab, waiting for my husband to check the baby's vital signs. But what choice did we have? We had to genetically engineer our daughter for her great tasks ahead, and it would've been impossible to do so if the fetus resided within me.

Kyle speaks up at last.

"All major organ systems fully developed…regular heartbeat…motor coordination strong…"

"Looks like you two have done it," Leon congratulates us.

Naturally, my coworkers Leon and Iris Carr are here as well, with their infant son Andrew in tow. The Carrs have worked with us from the very beginning, ever since Kyle inherited those mysterious files. They are as much a part of the mission as we are.

I ask the fateful question. "IQ?"

Kyle smiles broadly. "210."

I sag with relief. _At last!_ The one part of our plan the Carrs have never approved of is our "tinkering" with the human genome. I've never understood their squeamishness about this; what's wrong with adding or subtracting a few nucleotides here and there? But no matter. The Carr baby, who of course was born naturally, only has an IQ of 160. _Who's tinkering now?_

"Want to do the honors?" my husband prompts me.

I nod and tentatively reach into the metal womb. Terrified of pinching too hard, I quickly lift the infant out, wrap it in a blanket, and set it in the crib. We all gather around to look at her. When Kyle and I first programmed our child's genes, we decided to give her a blend of our physical traits:my dark blonde hair, his steely gray eyes. Peering silently up at us, the newborn looks startlingly solemn.

"What's her name?" asks Iris.

Kyle answers for me. "Jeanine. _Gene_ experiment number _nine_."

"And the only successful one," I hear Leon mutter. I glare at him but don't say anything further; the Carrs are a powerful family in Erudite, after all, and it wouldn't do to offend them.

Evidently, Kyle's heard him too. "Four more designer children will follow, one to lead each of the other factions," he promises. "They will complete Operation Convergence for us, and the city will be free of the troublesome Divergent at last."

The four of us nod solemnly at our shared secret plot, the ancient mission that our families have carried on for generations. "Soon, you'll complete that mission," I whisper to the infant, lifting her up to the window so she can see the whole glorious city spread out below her. "And all of this will be yours." My daughter smiles ever so slightly.

In Iris's arms, Andrew Carr begins to cry.

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**If this section didn't make any sense to you, I highly recommend that you read chapters 2 and 5 of **_**The Class of 2251**_**. In the meantime, please read and review! I'm experimenting with first person present tense, so tell me what you think!**


	2. A Disastrous Amble: 4-23-2242

**Warning: this chapter will be slightly ungrammatical due to the age of the narrator.**

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_**April 23, 2242**_

_**Amy, Age 1**_

"Go fetch!"

I am in a bright white room with my older siblings. I've never been here before. My oldest sister pulls a glowing ball out of her pocket and I squeal happily. _It's the candy ball!_ The candy ball flies in the air and spews out sweet candy if I can grab it.

I toddle after the ball, which flies out the door. Dave and Candice, however, are much faster than me.

"Wait!" I scream. I turn back to the room for help, but Jeanine simply smirks and slams the door behind me.

I face the long bright hallway. Big people in long blue coats shuffle back and forth, but nobody stops to pick me up. _Where is mommy? I'm all alone. _My brother and sister turn the corner. I stumble after them, tripping every few steps. Down one hallway. Up another. I barely see Dave and Candice now before they disappear around another bend. _It's not fair! They get all the candy because they're fast!_ Just as I'm about to stop and cry, a strange rumbling sound fills the air. The walls crack. Up ahead, the door where Dave and Candice are passing explodes outward. Hot yellow gas fills the hallway.

"MOMMYYYYYYY!" I wail. The floor and walls cave in. Then everything goes black.

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**The next chapter will be longer, I promise. R&amp;R!**


	3. Beyond the Boundaries: 5-14-2245

**Before I begin, I'd like to start with…the Sheronnale Trivia! **

Here's how it works: I post a trivia question at the start or end of each chapter. Sometimes, the answers can be found in the story; other times, you just have to guess. Whoever leaves a review with the correct answer can choose from one of the following rewards:

a) Give the next trivia question. (The question must be related to the story.)

b) Suggest a cover picture for this story. Note: Obscene pictures will not be accepted.

c) A chapter dedicated to the winner.

If more than one person guesses right, the first correct reviewer wins. If nobody guesses right, the first reviewer to submit a guess wins. Here is this chapter's question:

**We are three people sharing one account. Can you tell who the author of this story is?**

Sheronnale #1- I am Amity. I love how everyone is always friendly there. If only the world could work like that…

Sheronnale #2- I am Dauntless. THE PIT IS **AWESOME**.

Sheronnale #3- I am Erudite. After reading the series, though, I'm not sure I want to be associated with them.

Good luck guessing!

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**_May 14, 2245_**

**_Perrier, Age 5_**

_Click! Tap!_ My brother's fingers fly over the keyboard of his laptop. I watch him from the couch, wondering what on Earth he's programming this time. For as long as I can remember, my brother's always been a wiz at electronics. When Andrew was my age, he could already fix any computer problem that came his way. If he weren't such a moral person, he could seriously become part of the Erudite hacking team one day.

"Andrew, can you take Perrier out to the park or something?" My mother pops into the living room with a stack of papers. "Your father and I want to run some chemical experiments on our lab-grown oranges, and we don't want you kids getting in the way."

My brother frowns. "I won't bother you, I promise."

"Yes, but Perrier will."

"Hey!" I glare at my mother, but she ignores me. Typical.

Andrew groans irritably. "But mother, I was just about to go to the library to work on a school project with Jeanine!"

"Great, bring Perrier with you," says Mother matter-of-factly.

Andrew and I exchange horrified looks. "NO!"

"Why not?" My mother looks genuinely confused. _Does she not understand her sons at all?_

"Perrier's such a pest! He'll keep bothering us and never let us get anything done!" explains Andrew exasperatedly.

"I _hate_ Jeanine!" I yell as loudly as I can. "She's the brattiest, most stuck-up—"

"PERRIER!" Mother glares at me. "Don't say that about Jeanine! Her parents are our friends!"

"THEY'RE **DEAD**!" I snap back. I'm going to get into trouble for this later, but I really don't care. It's too bad the Matthews died in a lab explosion. I still don't have any sympathy for their only surviving child.

I can tell Mother's just about had it. "Andrew, as the oldest child it's your responsibility to care for your younger sibling. Perrier, you need to learn to get along with people you don't like. Now _get out of the house!_"

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An hour later, I pace restlessly between the aisles of books as Andrew and his friend assemble what looks like a cross between a flamethrower and a miniature car. Not for the first time, I wonder why I was born into Erudite. I'm reasonably smart—my IQ is around 147, which is high even for an Erudite—but I can't sit still to save my life. There are just too many sights to see, too many people to meet, and too many things to do for me to just slouch around. Unfortunately, everyone else seems to find studying genetically modified oranges and flamethrower/automobile hybrids far more interesting than talking to me. When the boredom begins to make me itch all over, I ask, "What _are_ you guys making, anyway? What crazy teacher would assign you something this complicated?"

My brother ignores me. Jeanine gives me an icy look. "Your brain isn't sufficiently developed to understand the workings of this contraption, _juvenile_."

This is what I hate about Jeanine. She uses this air of superiority toward her peers and especially younger kids, as though we are all garbage next to her incomparable intellect. With figures of authority, though, Jeanine's a disgusting little flatterer. I simply don't understand how my brother can stand her.

I stick out my tongue at my enemy and turn to Andrew. "When can we go home?"

"In two or three hours, I guess," he responds without looking up.

"But I'm so bored!" I complain.

"Go read or something," replies my brother absentmindedly.

I sigh. "I've read all the children's books, and the grown-up ones are so dull," I explain for the millionth time this week.

Jeanine growls in frustration and throws down the machine parts. "Can't you go outside and leave us alone?!"

"Don't let Perrier wander around!" _Now_ my brother panics. "My parents would kill me if anything happens to him!"

"Well we're not going to make any progress if he keeps pestering us like this!" Jeanine shoots back sharply.

Andrew looks between his friend and me nervously. "I'll tell you what." He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his cell phone. "Take this and go explore the city. I'll call you on Jeanine's phone when it's time to go home, alright?"

_This is impossible._ The sudden prospect of freedom electrifies me. "Really? I can go wherever I want?"

"Well, don't go near the Dauntless or factionless sectors, alright? And _please_ don't do anything stupid," Andrew begs me.

I grin. "Promise." Words cannot express my joy as I run out the door.

* * *

For the next three hours, I criss-cross the city by bus. People give me odd looks (it's rare to see an Erudite riding the bus, much less a young child), but I couldn't care less. Somehow, I've never noticed just how huge this city is. Normally, all I can see through my father's tinted car windows are murky shadows. Through the clear glass of the bus, though, the sky shines as brilliantly blue as the neon Erudite sign above the main headquarters. Even the drabness of the concrete takes on a distinctive earthy hue. _Where should I go? _I can't get to Abnegation without going through the factionless sector, so I rule that place out. I'm forbidden to go to Dauntless, and I wouldn't want to visit the sharp-mouthed Candor even if I could. I settle for Amity.

To us Erudite children, and to everyone who lives in the city, really, the grounds of Amity seem like a fabled land. According to our textbooks, the ground is covered with a soft, springy substance called soil, from which sprout trees that supposedly produce fruit. In other words, it's magic.

When I spot a flash of green outside my window, I hop off the bus. The first thing I notice is the quiet. Almost no cars come to the edge of the city. The black concrete ends about fifty yards from the fence, giving way to a sandy, gritty substance that I suppose must be dirt. I spot the gate a few dozen paces ahead, its thick metallic doors guarded by black-clad teens with brightly colored hair. _Wait, what are the Dauntless doing here?_ I stop and observe them a moment. They stroll back and forth, drumming their fingers on scary-looking guns at their hips. None of them seems to be in any hurry to leave.

I shuffle up to the friendliest-looking of the bunch, a woman with streaks of pink in her dark hair, and ask, "Excuse me, do you know how to open the gate? I'd like to go outside."

She stares at me as though I'm a talking shrub. "You want to go…_outside?_"

"Yeah." I put on my most amiable smile. "The fields look so nice."

Two other Dauntless, a burly man with green spiky hair and an older woman in a tattered leather jacket, look up at this and burst out laughing. "Did he just say he wants us to open the gates 'cuz '_the fields look nice'_?"

As intimidating as they look, I can't help glaring at the trio. I simply can't stand teasing. "What? I've never seen the Amity fields before."

The pink-haired woman sighs while her companions continue guffawing. "Look, kid, nobody 'xcept government folks can pass through here, not unless they got a pass. If we let everyone in and out as they please, we might as well tear down the fence."

I frown. "Why not?"

"Because there's only miles and miles of nothing out there. Can't have people wanderin' and getting lost, can we?"

"Save your breath, Ava," growls the man. He waves his gun at me in wild circles. "Watch this. **GET OUTTA HERE! **See? Gets rid of 'em every time."

I run parallel to the fence, the force of blind panic shoving me forward yards at a time until I collapse in the grainy soil. I look behind me. The Dauntless are out of sight, thankfully. Who do they think they are, taunting me like that? Why should there be a fence between Amity and the rest of the city? After all, I'm free to visit all the other factions!

I look at the fence again. It's a curious fact that chain-link fences are so ridiculously easy to climb. Why go to the hassle of trying to get past those grumpy guards when one could simply cross over from here? I press my face against the metal links and look out. A few dusty clouds hover over the horizon. Below them, leafy green trees extend in neat rows all the way to the edge of the sky. For a moment, I think they're growing in waves based on height, but no; _the ground itself must be uneven!_ I tilt my head from side to side, enjoying the surreal effect of the gently rolling hills. Even the wind smells of tangy fruit. I long to wander in that serene orchard, to brush my fingertips along the green bristles that carpet the spaces between the trees. But something tells me scaling the fence would rank high on Andrew's list of "stupid things." Instead, I close my eyes and listen to the peaceful hum of nature.

After what seems like only a minute, my phone rings.

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**Read &amp; review!**


	4. Leaks and Fixes: 9-28-2247

**Trivia Answer: **Nobody submitted any guesses, so I'll leave this open and see if anybody else takes a shot at it. :)

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_**September 28, 2247**_

_**Cassidy, Age 6**_

I know something's wrong when I hear my dad's footsteps pounding down the dirt path. The Amity never run. What's the hurry when nobody keeps track of time? We live our lives by the brightening and dimming of the sky, by the growth and decay of the fruit trees in the fields. We believe in taking life slowly so that we can appreciate every passing second. When somebody runs here, it's always an emergency.

"Flood!" Dad yells, tumbling through the doorway into our large cabin. "The pump's broken!"

"Again?!" Three of my older brothers leap up from the table, looking around frantically. "We've got to stop it!"

"Quick, everyone grab a pail and move!"

Javier, Rodrigo, and Luis run for the supply corner, crashing into each other and sending buckets flying everywhere._ Boys. Always so clumsy._ I giggle and bend down to pick up one of the smaller buckets.

"No, Cassie." My dad stops me by grabbing my upper arm. "The water's a good four feet deep now. Let the boys deal with it."

"But I've been reading up on pumps. Maybe I can help!" I decided to do some serious research on plumbing after our central pump, the one that filters all of Amity's water, broke for the sixth time this month. The machine must've been top-of-the-line when it was first built, but now it's over eighty years old and the Erudite transfer who made it died long ago. Still, I was able to find the original blueprints online, and the circuitry didn't look that complicated.

"Stay here, speckle-eyes," calls Javier good-naturedly, using the nickname he invented for me because of the light brown patch in the otherwise gray iris of my right eye. "Swimming is no activity for ladies."

"I want to help!" I say more shrilly. _Why does everyone overlook me just because I'm a little girl?_

Dad wrings his hands agitatedly as my two other brothers rush out the door. "Fine, fine, but stay away from the pump until we've gotten all the water out!"

"Where's Mama and Oscar?" someone asks.

"Already there. Let's go!"

By the time we get there, a bucket line's already formed between the pump room and the fields. Like usual, every Amity, young or old, has gathered here to help and to chatter. As my family members join the line, I weave to the doorway of the pump room and peer in. Silt-brown water greets my gaze, churned to a white foamy mess by the leaking water filtration machine. _Chug-chug-chug!_ A group of adults wade near the intake pipe, working at the control panel with screwdrivers and hammers. Judging by their expert movements, they must be former Erudite. I decide to back away until the water's been scooped out—I don't even want to _think_ about what could be producing that horrible smell.

It takes fifteen minutes for the engineers to shut off the water, and another five hours to clear out the pump room. By the time the last bucket of water sloshes onto the soggy grass outside, the trees' shadows slash thin dark lines over the ground.

"Can you please fix the water machine properly so this won't happen again?" our leader, Jerry Lloyd, asks the Erudite transfers.

Patricia, the lead engineer, shakes her head. "We can't. The construction is foreign to us. We never studied mechanisms like this in Erudite."

I'm surprised by her answer. _Isn't a machine just a machine? Does it matter what style of construction it has?_ I know I should stay outside like my dad asked me to. After all, what good can I do if all those grown-ups were stumped? But in the end, curiosity gets the better of me. While the adults discuss what to do, I slip into the still-damp pump room and poke around. Instantly, I see what's wrong: several of the valves have become brittle with age and begun crumbling. A strange calmness washes over me as the gears in my mind whir to life. The restlessness falls away. I know exactly what I need to do.

I trace my finger along the pipes, clearing out pieces of old valve that have stopped up the filters. I take an inventory of the odds and ends lying on the floor. _I think I have all the spare parts I need_. Standing on tip-toe, I begin dissembling the machine. The task is trickier than I imagined; most of the tools were meant for adult-sized hands, meaning that I have to press and yank with all my might to get the parts moving as they should. _Hmmm…what does this switch control? It can't have anything to do with that pressure gauge…and where's the secondary reservoir?...perhaps this pipe needs to be replaced too…where did that blue wire connect to again…this panel should hold for a while longer… _Thankfully, the adults are still conversing when I finish. "Hey, I think I fixed it!"

Jerry and Patricia look at me incredulously. "Okay...that's great, Cassidy," says Jerry hesitantly. "Thank you for your help. Now please come out of there."

I smile, relieved he didn't scold me. "Let's turn the machine back on and see!"

"NO!" shouts Patricia frantically, stumbling down the stairs after me. "You'll cause another flood!"

"We can always turn it off again. How will we know it's really fixed if we don't try it?" I wonder aloud. Seeing that she's too freaked out to hear me, I spring aside and hit the "start" button. A whirring noise vibrates throughout the basement. I cross my fingers, hoping for the best. To be honest, I've never worked on something this large before, and I'm not entirely sure if I put those last screws back in the right places. _Please work please work please work…_

Within seconds, clear water is flowing as smoothly as silk through the plastic pipes of the pump. The Amity gasp and applaud. _YES!_

"Cassie, what…" mutters my mom, peering down the staircase.

"The compressor stumped me for a minute, but…" I give a quick explanation of what I did. "I hope you don't mind," I say sheepishly, turning to the former Erudite, "but, I, uh, added a housing gasket and an adaptor here to make the filter more efficient." A stunned silence greets my words. _Uh oh. Did I do something wrong?_

One nerve-wracking minute later, my brother Oscar finally cracks a grin. "Cassie, you're not human!"

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**Cassidy is the last new major character, I promise. She will actually have quite a major influence on the canon characters later, so she's not just a random OC. Please review! I love reading your comments! **


	5. Secrets Abound: 2-23-2251

**Trivia Answer:** I am Sheronnale #3! Nobody guessed the correct answer, so the reward goes to the first respondent, "trivia guess!" Please leave a review or PM telling me whether you want to suggest the next trivia question, provide a cover photo, or have a chapter dedicated to you.

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_**February 23, 2251**_

_**Perrier, Age 11**_

Powdery flakes of snow drift through the air as I leave the school. My mother is working late again, which means I'll have to walk home. I shiver. _Why does everyone look forward to winter? I'm FREEZING!_ Just as I'm about to cross the street, someone grabs me by the back of my snow jacket and drags me around the corner. I scream.

"Shut up, you senseless ignoramus!" It's Jeanine.

I wrench myself out of her grasp and glare at her. "Screaming is a perfectly logical response to perceived danger. What do you want?!"

"Where is that disingenuous brother of yours?! He promised to fax me those files over the weekend, but he never did!" Jeanine's eyes bore holes through me, as though I might be hiding Andrew behind me.

"Hang on a minute…" Something doesn't add up. "Andrew told Mother on Saturday that he was going to the computer lab to do research with _you_!"

The Erudite girl scans my face, trying to see if I'm lying. "First he refuses to finish the data mining, and now it looks like he's disappeared altogether! If Andrew is stealing those files so _he_ can implement Operation Convergence by himself, this will** not **end well."

I don't know what's fueling my anger. Perhaps it's the mind-numbing cold or being suddenly grabbed off the street. But suddenly, I'm sick of all these secrets and disappearances. I don't care if Jeanine is five years older or three times smarter than I am. I want answers. **Now**. "I have my own questions for YOU. What on Earth is going on? Ever since that day when my parents told you and Andrew whatever the heck was in those classified files, you two have been plotting something. _What are you doing?_"

Jeanine stares down at me, her face a blank mask. "I'm not sure exactly what you're referring to—"

I ball my fists. "You know _exactly_ what I'm talking about. War maps. Weapon blueprints. Population counts. Don't you dare tell me it's just some silly new game you've invented."

"Tell me where Andrew is first!" snaps Jeanine.

I shake my head. "No. _You_ tell me what you and my brother are doing with those war plans."

We glare eye-to-eye for about ten seconds. Then Jeanine storms off, to what nefarious purpose I don't care to speculate.

* * *

There's no sign of my brother at home, so I go into our shared bedroom to look for clues. The best I can figure, my parents have recruited Andrew and Jeanine to work on some crazy Erudite scheme. Jeanine is all for it, apparently, but my brother wants out. The question is, if Andrew's not working on the plan like he says he is, then where is he? And _what_ exactly did my parents tell them?

The papers about the secret project are all in a locked trunk under Andrew's desk, so I head for his computer. I open a minimized browser window. It's my brother's e-mail account, with 2 messages from someone called Natalie Prior. _Who on Earth is this? How does Andrew know her?_ Natalie's most recent message reads:

**natalieprior dauntless** to **andrewcarr erudite**:

_Hey, any luck on that Ritter-Prior key? Tried mentioning "Edith" to mom, she didn't seem to know her. Meet tomorrow by Erudite HQ?_

—_Nat_

Ritter-Prior key? I go back to the inbox, planning to scroll through Natalie's older messages to see if I can guess what she's talking about, or, for that matter, who she is. But then I hear the front door unlocking. I minimize the window and shut the computer. Something strange is going on, and I intend to find out what.

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**I know some of this overlaps with my first story a bit, but this background is important to the events that happen later. Thanks for reading! Now let's take a look at the...**

**Sheronnale Trivia #2! **

Here's an easy one! Name one of Cassidy's brothers.

**R&amp;R!**


	6. Vowing Vengeance: 5-7-2251

**A/N: Sorry about the long wait. As you can see on my profile, I _am_ the hiatus-prone Sheronnale #3, after all. Somehow, this story disappeared as I was backing up my files, so I had to start over from my outline. But, as promised, I am back with the next chapter!**

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_**May 7, 2251**_

_**Jeanine, Age 16**_

_Pain_. The sensation blinds me with every breath, paralyzing my nerves so that I can't think. I don't even remember how I got home. In the sixteen years I've been alive, I've never been injured so badly, not even when Dave attacked me with a hammer. This is a new sort of torture altogether.

_That's what happens when you act without making contingency plans_, scolds my inner analytical voice. _You acted impulsively._

_Well, what was I SUPPOSED to do?_ I fume. _Let those two insurrectionaries run amok?_

In truth, I know attacking Andrew and Natalie in that alley was a rash move, but it was also necessary. The two of them had been planning something against me for some time, and I didn't know when they would strike. Why else would Andrew share all the details of the war between the United Nations and the International Convergence Legion, including our families' roles in that struggle, with _the Dauntless leader's daughter?_ Better to kill them now, I figured, than let them spread whatever twisted anti-Operation Convergence message they planned to disseminate.

Natalie fought back exactly as I'd predicted she would. I've watched the Dauntless fight each other enough to know their pattern with knives: fake, jab, retreat two steps, block, and horizontal slice to the right. I'd toyed with Natalie for a while and then hit her with high-powered zetha rays, a guaranteed slow death by radiation poisoning. That part had gone according to plan. What I _hadn't_ expected was for Andrew to attack me bare-handed after watching what I'd done to his confidante. If he'd stopped to assess the situation, he would've realized that the probability of defeating me while I had the laser gun was far too low.

Somehow, Andrew still managed to wrench the lethal laser out of my grasp. At gunpoint, I'd been forced to tell him the antidote to the zetha ray. A long time ago, I read that people can perform surprising feats when environmental stressors cause their adrenaline levels to rise. Clearly, this includes the ability to succeed at incredibly impulsive acts of violence. I'll have to remember to account for this in the future.

I fumble for a jar of healing salve and pour the lime green liquid down my sides. As the pain finally fades, a knot of worry settles in my stomach. I'm fairly certain Andrew and Natalie won't go to the police; if they dare accuse me of attempted murder, I'll indict them with subversion of the government. After all, the Convergence files must be in the Carrs' house. And I'm sure that Candor meddler, Johanna Reyes, won't remember anything. In fact, she's probably disfigured for life. Serves her right for jumping into the battle. What I'm really concerned about is the long-term consequences of Andrew and Natalie stealing those files. They could become a very big obstacle in the future, when I'm ready to implement my plans. Besides, I'm essentially locked out of the secret database now, because the one thing I just cannot understand is computer coding. Who will do my hacking now that Andrew has turned against me?

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**Review and leave an answer for Trivia #2!**


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